The premier issue of a new magazine, Notorious, featured an article by Sean Bosker that described his experience of “going to confession” at four New York-area Catholic Churches. In his piece, “I Confess: Gettin’ Off Easy,” Bosker instructed non-Catholics how to engage in a mock confession. Himself a non-Catholic, Bosker detailed... [Read more...]
BBC PUT ON NOTICE
As soon as the Catholic League learned that the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) was planning on starting a cable station in the U.S., William Donohue wrote a letter to John Birt, Director General of the BBC, expressing his concerns. The BBC, Donohue said, produced the movie, “Priest” (it was distributed by the Disney owned firm, Miramax)... [Read more...]
CRECHE CONTROVERSIES CONTINUE
In many parts of the country, this past Christmas was marked by conflict over its public celebration. The Catholic League was engaged in battles over the public display of crèches, winning some and losing some. In Lorain, Ohio, the ACLU threatened to sue city officials for erecting a crèche in Veterans Park; the ACLU director who led the charge is... [Read more...]
CRITICS CAN’T SAVE “NOTHING SACRED”
Never before in television history has a show been more praised by the critics and more panned by the public than “Nothing Sacred.” Virtually every TV critic in the country has used superlatives to describe the show while demonstrating nothing but utter contempt for the public that refuses to like it. One gets the distinct feeling that if... [Read more...]
GOBER ART DRAWS DEFENDERS AND CRITICS
Last October, the Catholic League sent a letter to the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and a news release to the media, stating our objections to a piece of art by Robert Gober (see November Catalyst). Gober’s work showed a phallic culvert pipe piercing Our Blessed Mother, the purpose of which, he said, was to deprive “the... [Read more...]
HBO SHOW WON’T AIR AGAIN
The Catholic League has had an interesting relationship with HBO (Home Box Office) over the years. The bad news is that HBO airs its share of shows that are offensive to Catholics; the good news is that when we complain, they listen and make changes. Such was the case with the Denis Leary “Lock-N-Load” comedy show. League members who saw... [Read more...]
IT’S THOSE CATHOLICS!
In November, a woman was jailed in Miami for prostitution. For some reason, the news wire service, Reuters, felt compelled to note that the 39-year-old hooker was “a former Catholic high school student.” Had she at one time worked for Reuters, we doubt that her former status would have been mentioned. In December, a New Jersey newspaper, The... [Read more...]
JOURNALISM—FAIR AND UNFAIR
One question the league is often asked is how we make determinations on what we deem to be offensive. Here’s a good example of how the process works. This past fall, the Dallas Morning News ran a story, “Crimes of the Father,” on a death row prisoner in Arkansas. It showed a picture of the man holding a rosary bead that was draped around... [Read more...]
NEO-ANTI-CATHOLICISM
There are many genres of anti-Catholicism, the most well-known of which are discriminatory practices against individual Catholics and bigoted assaults on the institutional Church. Both forms continue to exist, but the contemporary strain of Catholic bashing that is most common, if less visible, is best understood as a manifestation of cultural politics. Culture... [Read more...]
PIUS XII AD DRAWS RESPONSE
The Catholic League’s New York Times ad on Pius XII triggered a storm of protest from Jewish readers. The e-mail, phone calls and letters took great umbrage at the suggestion that the Catholic Church was less than complicit in the killing of Jews during the Holocaust. While some of the letters were reasoned, many could easily be classified as hate... [Read more...]